Buran was worse, it was built by somebody copying the committee's homework on the bus.
It had no engines because the shuttle's engine are an amazing piece of engineering and the USSR couldn't build them. But it still was shaped to have engines and sat on the side of the booster where it would need to be if it had engines.
It took off in the wrong direction and had to do a stressfull aerodynamic roll to point toward orbit, because the shuttle did that. But the shuttle only did it because they were reusing an Apollo era launch platform that was built the other way around
It's main advantage was that it could be flown to orbit and back remotely, in which case why did you need pilots and so why did you have to design the craft to have pilots seats and windows at the front ?